Story has transitioned to DATA Foundation, shifting its focus from general intellectual property infrastructure to AI training data, citing growing demand for rights-cleared datasets to train AI models.
The transition also includes the launch of Trace, an onchain registry and public audit platform for AI training data, alongside a "flagship" integration with Kled that brings more than 1.5 billion user-contributed records onto the DATA network. Story co-founder Andrea Muttoni has become CEO of DATA Foundation, while Kled founder Avi Patel has joined as chief data officer.
Story originally set out to build an IP layer where digital assets could be registered and licensed onchain. Its ecosystem included projects such as Magma, which brought more than 3 million artists onto Story, and Aria, which put music rights from artists including Justin Bieber and BTS onchain, Muttoni told The Block.
When asked why the focus changed, Muttoni said the strongest demand increasingly came from AI companies looking for high-quality, rights-cleared training data. He said the clearest signal came from Poseidon, an AI data-processing project incubated by Story that later raised a $15 million seed round led by a16z crypto and gained traction with frontier AI labs.
